In particular, State Department officials complained that the independence vote risked being “a distraction” from the ongoing war against ISIS, though US and Iraqi officials have given all indications that they expect the ISIS war within Iraq to be long over by late September.

The more direct answer is that the US has long opposed Kurdish secessionist ambitions, and the State Department today reiterated their support for a “unified” Iraq, though they did make the rare concession that they believe the people of Iraqi Kurdistan have “legitimate aspirations.”

Voting will cover not only the part of Iraq which is legally part of Iraqi Kurdistan, the provinces of Dohuk, Arbil, and al-Sulaimaniyah, but also all territory captured by the Kurdish Peshmerga during the ISIS war, including oil rich Kirkuk and a lot of the northern portion of the Ninebeh Province.

This loss of territory would be painful to Iraq’s government, or rather the loss of oil revenue that it represents. It is therefore expected that the central government will oppose such a move, and may physically try to stop secession. The US clearly opposes Kurdish secession, but having heavily armed the Peshmerga for the ISIS war may have given them the equipment necessary to successfully split away without being reconquered by the central government’s forces.

“The US clearly opposes Kurdish secession, but having heavily armed the Peshmerga for the ISIS war…”

The US is about to find out, again, what the blowback for messing around in someone else’s business is all about. From 2003, the Kurds have talked openly about independence – time’s up. And as noted in the article above, the Iraqi government is not going to go along quietly. The distraction the US is warning about is the Iraqi gov turning all eyes on the Kurds – leaving the US to clean up the mess in Mosul (with no “combat troops” on the ground – they’re just trainers and advisors, right?)

More and more nation building. We are still paying for being the means of creating Crostia, Bosnia and Kosovo. We are the budget of Afghanistan and Libya. We prop up all three Baltic states, and are on the hook for that special relations with Poland. We are sinking deeper into Ukrainian mud, while still proppimg up Georgia. All of them are kept on our back to various degrees. And we are chipping in for various defense needs — even for countries that could pay for it. Japan, South Korea, Germany and the rest of NATO. And there is Israel.

Let us now add Kurdish state in Iraq and Syria. Like in Kosovo — we would run their governments, pay for schools an health care and even trash collection. When will this bleeding of US taxpayer end?